Its 20% as far as I know. At least in MD, I dont know all the lingo though...

 

Im not exactly sure how its working for you, but when the bank figured my max debt-income they also used the escrowed amount for home owners insurance and property taxs... this added 450 or so a month on top of my morgage...

(looking at your other post, I see you addressed this) but in your example you say 1375-taxs/insurance = 925 (or so)... that doesnt buy much of a house... approx 150Ks worth. (on a 30 yr morgage)

Your market might be alot different than the one up here...

 

You only want to borrow 80% of the appraised value so you dont get hit with the high morgage insurance. Brian, your like me... because you are building your own house its going to be appraised for more than you paid for it.... I was lucky, mine cost less than 80% of the apprasial...

 

 

Yeaup. That is with the FHA Loan where they are capping. Through the Automated Approval System my mortgage lady was able to get 37% approved for my loan, however she said that anything higher was denied and requested that she put it through an underwriter. She informed me that they are very particular on the 33/41% and would deny anything higher.

It's terrible with how terrible the market is how hard it is for people who don't make a lot to get a home.

 

- See, I'm buying brand new condos. My unit wont even be built until Feb/March 09'.

 

Yes... I agree...
It was so much easier before to get a loan, but realestate was sooo much higher. Now all the banks are so careful, but everything is so much cheaper.
I went through a small local bank, they look at more than just numbers.

 

Haven't heard of FHA Plus, Chad. Not sure that would help me too much though. We've got the down payment under control but the problem up here is that the affordable condos have insane condo fees (seen some at $700/mo!) while the expensive condos have lower fees. When you compare the bottom lines, they all balance out to still being just barely affordable.

 

FHA Plus just a down payment assistance type program. You have two mortgages. The first is 97% at a particular rate - as the FHA Loan is only a 97% Loan, requiring the purchaser to put down 3%. The second 'Plus' loan is a 3% Loan, paying off the remaining amount allowing the purchaser to have $0 out of pocket. You can actually do the Plus Loan up to 5% - giving you an additional amount.

I did the FHA Plus Loan with 5%. With the condo incentives, plus using that extra 2% I bought the condo with $0 out of pocket and have my first three years of condo fee's paid.

 

I understand what you mean about the high condo fee's though. Speaking with my realtor, for every $60 of condo fee's you must reduce the amount of your approval by $10k.

So, if you are approved up to $250k and you have a $180 month condo fee your condo better be under $220k.